A friend of mine posted his honeymoon photos on Facebook. They went to Spain/Italy for around 3 weeks.

While browsing through those photos, I remembered how 10 years ago, both him and me were studying for our O level exams together.

Warm afternoon but windy. At the study benches. After all our classes have ended. Sometimes we would take a nap and I still remember him drooling over his textbook.

Fast forward to present time, he now runs his own design company, happily married and owns a vehicle. While I still work for someone else, live in a small house, no car and have accomplished nothing worth boasting.

I know it’s silly to compare other people with oneself but I feel that only applies to pessimistic people. I’m a mix of both.

I began to think about the differences in our lives which lead to our current situations. The things we’ve done and how we’ve spent the last 10 years.

Disclaimer: I don’t know what he’s done in the last 10 years but I’m going to guess anyway.

For him. Back in our polytechnic days, I remember he switched courses and sort of wasted 1 year, then finished it in 3 years. Then he has to serve National Service for about 2 years. Which leaves him 4 years to establish what he is today, a boss of his own company. I’ve seen some of his work and they are really good.

For me. I finished my course in 3 years, thereafter I took a 6 months break living a Hikikomori lifestyle. Learned a bit of PHP, then went job hunting. Worked in the same company for the same boss for 6 years for average salary.

Throughout my working years, most of my spare time went into FFXI instead of learning new things. Turned down social gatherings with friends and colleagues. All that’s in my mind at that point in time wasn’t about my future, it was all FFXI.

I’m currently reading a Japanese book about “Net game addicts“. Bought it for reading practice. Reading about the lives of different Japanese people who were addicted to online games. Some dropped out of university. Some neglected their health so bad they got hospitalized.

There’s one chapter about a young addict who says he lost all his youth to net games. All he does now is work random part time jobs. Has low income but enough to meet his daily needs.

Recently, I can’t help but wonder if life would’ve been better if I’ve never played FFXI. Could I be drawing a higher salary, driving my own car, living in a larger apartment now?

Some good things have come out of it though. Friends from all over the world. Having fun while saving money. Acquired natural reflexes when seeing the word “Radiant” somewhere else outside the game.

Still, if anyone asks me if they should play MMORPG, or show interest in one, I would advise them not to. Unless it’s someone with no ambitions at all.

P.S. I still play FFXI, and I don’t see myself quitting at all. However, I’m no longer as addicted as I once was. I have control over it instead of letting FFXI control me.

Sometimes, when I come across something really good, like an anime series or a song/music. I’ll have this strong urge to get my friends to watch/listen too.

But often when one appears too enthusiastic about getting someone else to watch something, he ends up making the other party uncomfortable. They will then have a bad impression towards that anime and will never watch it at all.

Happened to me once when I tried to get a friend to watch a particular anime series. Now, I’ve given up getting him to watch it as I know he has unconciously blacklisted that anime.

Think Naruto too. Some of you might be irritated at how fans keep saying it’s the best anime. I’m of you by the way. But to be fair, I find the manga good but the anime terrible.

However, I’m also one of those who say Evangelion is the best anime. When asked what’s my favourite, I would no doubt answer Evangelion. Except I will not go crazy telling everyone I come across about it.

Every time someone approaches me, behaving over enthusiastic about selling me a product, I instantly turn them down because I can’t help but suspect that they have an ulterior motive.

Perhaps TV is to blame as they always portray the conman as someone very enthusiastic.

So nowadays, I stop myself from directly telling someone to try something.

Instead, I wait for people to ask, or find a chance to introduce it during a casual conversation, or do subtle advertising like posting a youtube video of the anime’s OP/ED in facebook and hope some curious friend clicks on it.

The trick is to lure people. Like, put a quote of your favourite anime in your MSN status message. When someone asks you what it’s about, you tell him it’s from this anime. His interest will be piqued and you will have succeeded in sharing.

DESPAIR!!! PEOPLE SUSPECTING ANOTHER’S SINCERITY TO SHARE HAS LEFT ME IN DESPAIR!!!

If you’re an MMORPG player or Ghost in the Shell fan, you’ll immediately recognize where 2 of the concepts came from.

The part where the blonde chick turned out to be a fat guy, I saw that coming. Ancient MMORPG IRC joke. lol

Reason I watched it is because my friends wanted to watch a movie. They wanted to watch some Hong Kong (HK) movie and I don’t like to watch HK movies unless it’s as epic as Infernal Affairs. And sadly, there hasn’t been any HK movie as good as Infernal Affairs since it’s release until now.

So to make the most out of my money, I requested that we watch Surrogates. And also because I was curious what the whole story and plot would be about.

So since the concept isn’t new, the plot turned out to be something that’s been re-used, the only thing left that made my money worth were the action scenes.